Early Life of John Milton - Childhood

Childhood

Milton was born 6:30 a.m. on Friday 9 December 1608, in Cheapside, London along Bread Street, near St. Paul's Cathedral. He was baptized at All Hallows Church on 20 December 1608. At the time of Milton's birth, his father was 46 and mother 36. He had one older sister Anne; her date of birth is unknown. Milton had three younger siblings: Christopher, baptized 3 December 1615; Sara, baptized 15 July 1612 and died 6 August 1612; and Tabitha, baptized 30 January 1614 and died 3 August 1615.

Milton attended church at All Hallows and was influenced by the minister Richard Stock, a Puritan who was anti-Catholic and emphasized the need to read the Bible. In addition to his time at church, he spent most of his early life near St. Paul's Cathedral and was privately tutored. From the ages of 5 and 7, Milton was taught how to read and write in English and Latin, along with arithmetic. Milton was provided with several tutors between the ages of 7 and 12, but one in particular, Thomas Young, would prove influential. Young was a Scottish Presbyterian who had moved south, was highly educated and respected by his peers. Young's religious views affected Milton, and he adopted both Puritan appearances and ideas during his tutoring. Young was not the only major figure in Milton's early education; Milton acknowledged his father's care in teaching him many languages, including French, Italian, and Hebrew.

After a few years, he was sent to St. Paul's School, which was run by Alexander Gil, William Sound, and Oliver Smythe. Gil had a reputation for scholarship in Greek, Latin, and theology. He was also a proponent of English grammar structures and relied on poetry, including that written by Edmund Spenser and Philip Sidney, in order to discuss the English language. Milton traveled each day between school and home, and his path took him by St Paul's. It is possible that he listened to the sermons put on during this time by John Donne. John Aubrey, in Brief Lives, quotes his brother Christopher to describe how Milton spent his time: "When he went to school, when he was very young, he studied very hard and sat up very late, commonly till twelve or one o'clock at night; and his father ordered the main to sit up for him". Milton later attributed his blindness, in his Defensio Secunda, to the rigorous study that he undetook during this time.

There is little evidence about Milton's time at St. Paul's, because the school's records were lost in a fire during the late 17th century. The actual date of Milton's start at the school is uncertain, further than estimate in the range from 1615 to 1622. According to accounts by Edward Phillips, Milton's nephew, and by Christopher Milton, Milton started at the school during his earliest years. However, Phillips states that Milton went to school with his brother, which ambiguous phrasing pushes the date to 1622. Milton, in his Defensio Secunda, claims that he began his deeper studies at the age of 12, which places the date after 1620. While at the school, Milton befriended Charles Diodati, and the two kept up a regular correspondence of letters and poetry. It is certain that the friendship was established Diodati before Diodati left to study at Oxford in early 1623.

In 1624, Milton composed his earliest completed poem, "A Paraphrase on Psalm 114". The poem describes how the Jews were led by God out of Egypt, the miracle of the parting of the Red Sea, and their eventual arrival in Canaan. The psalm emphasizes the importance of the father figure and serves as an early model for the relationship between father and son in Milton's later works, including Paradise Lost (God and Son) and Samson Agonistes (Manoa and Samson).